Why Apple Computers are the Best Windows PCs (or the lesser of several evils)

I’m now spending most of my time on an Apple computer, the 20″ 2.4 GHz iMac. I also use a Dell Inspiron e1505 and a Toshiba R100, both of which just run Windows. In my opinion, compared with the typical big-box computer (there are exceptions, like some Dell laptops, mainly the XPS series, and some other units by other lesser-known manufacturers) units by Apple hold some advantages if you’re deciding to purchase one over the other:

1. No promos
I like promo-hunting but lots of people don’t. Apple’s simply computer line  doesn’t rapidly vacillate in price, and the relative dearth of customization options make it pretty easy to figure out what Mac you’re gonna buy. Easier than, say, buying a PC from elsewhere.

2. It can run the best of both worlds.
Macs run Windows too. And they run their own pretty-darn-good operating system. So while in the hardware arena ou give up some choice by going Apple, you get twice the operting system choice you do normally from a PC. Heck, the percentage is actually less…in a good way…x86-based Linux will run perfectly fine on n Apple unit.

3. They don’t skimp on components
As opposed to the PC manufacturers, which start you off with 512 MB of 533 MHz memory, a single core 1.46 GHz processor and a rather limited operating system, not to mention a lowcapacity battery in some instances, for Apple computers the low-end models are perfectly capable of doing everyday tasks very smoothly. The desktop situation is a bit better for PCs, since Apple elects to use a bunch of notebook components in their iMac(the only thing I don’t really like about having that system). But to get down to cheap price levels, PC makers skimp on components that Apple doesn’t, thus making Apple look betterand PCs look nearly as costly as Macs when you get similar features, at least on the consumer end of things. Macbook Pros are much more expensive than Dell XPS m1530s, but less expensive than workstation laptop models that Dell tucks away in the business categor. Likewise, Mac Pros are more expensive than high-end home machines, but are cheap compared with desktop workstations in many cases. :/

4. They DO skimp on bloatware
PC makers are getting better about this, but Apple never had any problems with it to start with. One suggestion that you might want to buy a .Mac subscription, and you’re on your way. All trial versions of software are neatly tucked away should you want them, but they’re tucked away so you won’t be annoyed if you don’t want them. Again, Dell at least is slimming down the junk they include with their computers, so that the darn things will run with 1 GB of memory and a rather slow dual-core processor in a Vista environment without grinding to a screeching halt, but no matter whether you put Windows or just keep Mac OS on your Apple computer,  things are quite clean.

5. Mac OS is pretty, and so are Apple computers
Don’t get me wrong, Windows Vista looks awesome, and actually is much flashier than Apple’s Leopard OS. But Mac OS X has been doggone beautiful since pretty much the start, and thus applications built for the system are actually made to look nice, as opposed to a rather haphazard collection of Windows doodads. It’s probably easier for programmers to make pretty Mac apps, too, what with all the developer tools Apple builds into the operating system. Oh, and on the hardware side, while PC makers are getting better about this every day, I still think my iMac looks better than the Dell XPS One system. The Macbook also looks very cool compared with…oh…every other laptop on the market, though expansion capabilities, beyond memory and hard disk space, are nil internally. Yep, no ExpressCard slot on that little bad boy.

So if you just want to use your computer, whether that means using WIndows or using Mac OS, the Apple bunch trumps Dell, Gateway, HP et al. Though if you’re willing to work it a bit, the latter manufacturers will get you a better deal on a better system. Just be prepared to delete a few miscellaneous trial versions at the get-go. Oh, and your computer won’t be designed by Apple in California, for what that’s worth. Hey, I have nothing against anybody…yet…my next normal laptop will likely be the Dell XPS m1530. My next ultraportable, coming soon? If it proves worth the wierd USB and headphone jack arrangement, the Macbook Air.

Amazon S3 is great, but…

Okay, so you hae Amazon S3, the shiny new service that, for a mere $0.15 per GB per month, you can store whatever data you want. Transfer? A mere 10 cents per gig one way, 18 cents per gig the other. $20 gets you JungleDisk so you can tap into all that triple-redundant goodness.

But why not just use your webhost to do data duties?

No, I’m not kidding. Due to their overselling policies, web hosts will give you a heckuva lot more than the above for a whole lot less, because people usually don’t use their tons of web space anyhow. Usually their websites are maybe 50 MB in size or less. But anyway, let’s compare…between S3 and 1&1…

$3.99 – 10 GB storage, 300 GB transfer. $1.50 worth of storage,but if you download\upload that amount you’re n par with S3. If you transfer a ton of data, the webhost comes out ahead. WAY ahead.

$4.99 – 120 GB storage, 1.2 TB (1,200 GB) transfer. If you use a mere third of the storage available in your package, you’ve come out quite a bit ahead of the Amazon offering. Not counting transfer. Wow.

$9.99 – 250 GB storage, 2.5 TB (2,500 GB) transfer. Again, a mere third of storage used means that 1&1 is cheaper than S3. Again, not counting transfer. Duuuuuude.

$19.99 – 300 GB storage, 3 TB (3,000 GB) transfer. Lousy deal if you ask me; you have to use more than half the storage capacity to get your money’s worth, but if you use your full allotment, you’re looking at $45/month from Amazon just to store your stuff. Another $30 to download it, another $56 to upload it.

So how do you use your web space to substitute for S3? Just encrypt your data (or don’t make it easily accessible by some other means). Then open up Windows Explorer or Finder on the Mac and point it to your web space’s FTP server. No tools needed…or if you must, FileZilla is free on Windows and CyberDuck is free on Mac.

So the advantage here is price all around, by a pretty nice margin. The $10 package on 1&1 gives you storage at a mere four cents per gigabyte per month, and your first 10x-the-storage-amount of transfer is free.

The disadvantage? Probably speed. Web servers like 1&1 have lots of people on there at the same time, cramming as many sites on a server as they can. Infrastructure, while good (20 gigabit pipes on their US facility), isn’t optimized for lightning-fast downloading. After all, your website is just text, images and flash demos right? Maybe some PDFs thrown in for good measure. All of them rather small files. Try downloading a big file from freeit4less.com and you’ll see what I mean. No, wait…we don’t have any files to download from there anymore. Anyway, the bandwidth we get is maybe 150 KB/s. Perfectly fine for little files. But big ones? Amazon downloads clock in at 2.5 MB/s on a fast enough connection (you know, college broadband).

Also, web hosts don’t charge based on usage. They charge based on package. So if you arent using up a ton of storage, they’re a flat-out lousy choice. Using 20 GB of storage and 10 GB of transfer per month? $4.40 on S3. $4.99 on 1&1. If the files are just sitting there, $3 on Amazon, $4.99 on 1&1. That’s because web hosts are out to make money on people that don’t max out the service. S3 is out to make money on customers who use the service. That’s it.

Because of this, Amazon can scale dynamically for a traffic flood. For example, if you put up your software as part of the MacHeist deal (really good deal, e-mail me if you want more info…hurry though if you’ve got a Mac…the deal ends in less than a week) Amazon will keep charging you a dime per gig for data transfer. Web hosts will just overload. That’s where the difference lies between Amazon (and guys like Cachefly) and a regular web host: the former are CDNs (content delivery networks) whereas the latter are mere places to put your website. There is a difference in performance and the mentality behind that performance.

Cool to think about though. As for me, when I need web hosting I’ll go with 1&1. For storage, I’m sticking with S3 for the moment, at least until my internet connection gets slower when I move back home for the summer, then onto cable at my non-dorm location. Shoot…they use Comcast. But wait…I don’t need storage…I use Mozy for backup. But I digress…

Xohm

I love the idea of WiMax. In fact, when  get out of college I hope to start an ISP based on the tech. I also love Sprint. But come on guys, roll out the network and do it quickly so you can beat the competition to the punch. Y’all already have a network that is just as fast as Verizon’s, and much faster than AT&T’s…and you’ve got more coverage than either of them. now take the next step…

Yes, I’m talking about Xohm, the purported $40-a-month non-contract, non-subsidized, device-centric (very cool from a cell phone carrier) WiMax network powered by Intel &co. Problem is, aside fromthe price it’s a disappointment as of yet. There are only three pilot cities so far (Chicago, Baltimore, D.C.) and the tech has to be augmented with other stuff if you want to go elsewhere and still have ‘net access. I’m absolutely in favor of $40-a-month wireless access with no contract required…especially if it’s low-latency, reasonably fast and can be used by whatever for whatever (all this is fulfilled by WiMax) but I want it where I am, and it looks to not be going that way for awhile. I mean come on, they say 100 million people covered by the end of the year or something like that. We’re talking coverage that makes AT&T’s lousy HSDPA network look good.

Oh, and the speed isn’t that great compared with current offerings. It is better, but not a ton better. We’re talking Xohm here, not the WiMax tech itself. WiMax can speed up to 70 Mbps, or about 10 Mbps at 10 km. Both ways. My idea for an ISP could thus pump 20 Mbps out of a WiMax link with no problem, assuming ample amplification or a nearby tower. Heck, you can even get a signal out at dozens of km, though the link quality would be lousy enough to make the connection unattractive as real broadband.

But Xohm? 2-4 Mbps down, 1-3 Mbps up. Not horrible, but a large proportion of cell phones today on Verizon and Sprint can download at megabit-plus speeds and upload at 100k+. I tether my smartphone to my computer and got 1.6 Mb/s down and about 130k up. This is from the original EVDO technology, which has since been replaced by Revision A in data cards. The maximum speeds there? 3.1 megabits down, 1.8 megabits up. Real-world speeds can get up around 2 Mb/s down, 500 kb/s up, with 200 ms latency. Okay, so Xohm halves ping times, drives up download speed a little, and at least doubles upload speeds. Anything else, while we’re waiting? Maybe more backbone lines so that the true potential of WiMax will be realized? Oh wait…that would also put EV-DO on very good footing relative to WiMax, since the real speed limit for EV-DO in many areas is how much backbone there is at a particular tower.

So maybe Xohm will start that wireless revolution and internet revolution we need so badly. Sprint can pll out all the stops because it isn’t a landline carrier anymore. But I wouldn’t bet on it at the feature and coverage level were seeing at the moment. Interesting how they’re being very conservative on how well internet video will play back on various speed connections. I know YouTube will work fine over a megabit, but they’re right about the other stuff.

All that said, I can’t wait for Xohm.

The Great Phone Wars

Well, I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, and now I’ve finally done it: disregard same-color and refurbished and limited-edition versions of the same phone, and count up which carrier has the best selection of cell phones…

The top honor looks to go to Verizon at the moment. At the moment meaning that all carriers change their offerings on phones very quickly so a small lead might become a small defecit quickly. But anyhow, with a whopping 26 models of phone to pick from on the regular side, 8 smartphone models, 4 blackberries and 8 aircards, for 40 phone\smartphone\blackberry models total (counting the two push-to-talk enabled phones not mentioned above), VZW is the leader in choice…for the moment. Their prepaid section, however, is by no means first, with just six phones to choose from.

Second place looks to be a tie between AT&T and Sprint. AT&T actually may have more phones, and thus be first, but I was so confused by their bunches of multi-colored and refurbished models scattered throughout the phone buying page that I may have missed one or two. Anyhow, AT&T looks to have 24 regular phone models for sale, eight smartphones, five Blackberries and four aircards, for thirty-seven total models phone-wise. Pretty good, considering AT&T’s phone selection seems to be cheaper than VZW’s, especially in the area of smartphones. You can get a Treo 680 for $70 refurbished, or a Samsung Blackjack for just $30. The prepaid area is quite huge as well…again I may have missed a few models, or maybe overcounted, but the number looks to be 20 there. Oh, and a very large portion of AT&T’s phones are 3G-enabled. The same can’t be said of Verizon and Sprint’s offerings, though the proportion of 3G phones isn’t too bad on their respective services, and unlike AT&T’s network, the CDMA 3G network works in a LOT of places and is darn fast

So, on to Sprint. At first glance, they have a paltry 12 “regular” phones. But to that you have to add 10 Nextel iDEN phones, two of which are smart (one Blackberry, one Windows Mobile device that also has GSM capability for overseas). And three hybrid CDMA\iDEN handsets that give you both walkie-talkie and all the cool CDMA features in one handset. Add eight CDMA smartphones and 4 CDMA Blackberries to the mix…and a choice between seven aircards if you need ‘em…and you get a magnificent 37 models to choose from. Geesh, the choices…do I want to pay an arm and a leg for the world’s highest-tech, fastest-data, instant-communications walkie talkie phone (the Motorola ic902) or do I want a freebie Samsung cameraphone? How about an HTC PDA? Would you like that with or without a keyboard? Okay, that’ll be right out to you…oh and if you need to go overseas Sprint will rent you a GSM phone or three. Or use your fancy new Blackberry 8830. But all major CDMA carriers have that ‘un.

But wait…there’s more…Sprint doesn’t have its own branded prepaid service, but it does have Virgin Mobile, with 11 phones, and Boost Mobile, with 2. Plus, if you want, 2 more from Boost Unlimited, for a magnificent total of 15!

Last among the carriers, due to a near-complete lack of smartphones as of yet (I suppose because their 3G network ain’t there quite yet and 2.75G smartphones are sooo out of style…no wait the iPhone is 2.75G), is T-Mobile. But hey, you could actually buy one of their phones without a contract and your wallet would live to tell the tale. I think AT&T and Alltel are also okay at that sorta thing. But back to T-Mobile. They have a decent 22 phones of the regular sort on tap, plus their three Sidekick devices…which you could call “smartphones” if you wanted I suppose. They have four Blackberries (e-mail is fine with non-3G connectivity…heck, that’s why you even have a Blackberry or two on iDEN) and an abysmal (in my opinion…oh and now I remember…T-Mobile doesn’t sell Treos and that’s why there is a lack of smartphones…maybe) three smartphones available. That’s just 32 phones…and if you want an aircard (don’t know why…internet speed on T-Mobile is maybe twice dialup, probably worse) your choice is simple…there’s only one. The prepaid side of things is simply pathetic…just four phones available. Then again, their FlexPlan converts any plan, if you buy the phone without the discount, into a prepaid plan, and you can use whatever phone you want with whatever feature you want that way. Or put a phone, at full price, onto T-Mobile To Go. So you could say they have the best prepaid phone selection of anyone.

Now to the last carrier…nah I’ll put in one more below this one as far as mainstream carriers go. Anyway, Alltel is significantly lower than the above carriers in postpaid lineup, with just 13 regular phonne models, 5 smartphones and 2 blackberries, for just 20 total. Oh, and four aircards. But hey, their phones generally work well and quality should be there though quantity isn’t. And you get thirteen prepaid phones t pick from, from low-end to high-end. Cool.

What the heck, I’ll do two more biggies. Second-to-last, US Cellular clocks in at fifteen “normal” phones strong, if you call a bag phone a normal phone. Two Blackberries and the Motorola Q later…yes, just one smartphone due to USCC’s mere 1xRTT network (think T-Mobile speed, maybe just a tad slower)…and you get just eighteen models to choose from. Weak. Three prepaid phones? Gimme a break.

Last, let’s get Qwest in here. They resell Sprint. Maybe their extra phones should be credited to Sprint’s account, giving that carrier domination in the area of phone selection. Anyhow, you get a choice between nine decent phones for Qwest service, plus three smartphones, for a total of just twelve. Meh, at least they’re okay phones. Oh, and seven of them are Qwwest-only if you’re comparing the lineup to Sprint. So if they’re counted Sprint comes out as the clear choice leader when it comes to cellular selection. Interesting.

Now for the honorable mentions. Or dishonorable: the unlimited carriers. No smartphones here anymore. CricKet has just elevevn models to choose from. The same as Pocket, a Texas-based unlimited carrier that services where I live…and has about one-tenth the number of customers. MetroPCS is a little better, with 13 phones and color choice on one of ‘em. Heard of Cleartalk PCS? Didn’t think so…they’re also unlimited, and sell just eight phone models, looks like. All this looks pretty pitiful when you consider the local carrier in my area, Five Star Wireless, has ten phones to choose from, plus maybe a Treo, and their 2.5G CDMA network, while simply amazing coverage-wise, can’t cover more than 200,000 people…and I’ll bet only 10-20,000 are using Five Star as their provider directly.

Well, hope this has enlightened you to…something. Just thought I’d do a little research and see what came up, and the above is what happened. Maybe it’ll be of use to someone, though PLEASE don’t choose your carrier just because it has more hones available than anyone else. Choose it if it gives the features you want with the coverage you need at a price you’re willing to pay.

DIA Free WiFi

Well, after I heard about it on the news podcasts and such a day or two ago, I decided to use DEN’s all-new free WiFi network rather than my typical route: pulling out my USB cable and tethering my Sprint HTC Mogul to my computer via EV-DO. Previously, this was the laternative to paying out for an AT&T WiFi session, which I have never done.

Though I must admit to having purchased San Antonio’s WiFi…once…ad used T-Mobile’s hotspot service at DFW.

Anyhow, to the experience at DIA…

First off, when you cconnect (with a strong signal where  am…the Frontier concourse)  you’re presented with a usageagreement, which is standard fare for this type of access. Then you’re told you need to watch 30-second ad before you can access the ‘net. My ad was about Office 2007. I already have that product so it was sort of a drag, but okay…I’ll watch a 30-second ad for internet.

Once I finished the ad, FreeFi (DIA’s underlying Free WiFi provider) took about 10 seconds to authenticate me into the system, at which point I tried to load Google. It took a few seconds (I guess some more authentication was taking place) but the page loaded…with a leaderboard-size portion of my window dedicated to a banner ad and some info about FreeFi and DIA.

Interestingly, I’m using Firefox 3 Beta 1 and right now I’m surfing ad-free on the second tab I opened. And sometimes on other tabs. Maybe they only show ads sometimes. Interesting. Also, FreeFi isn’t losing anything; the ads I was seeing were public service announcements about whatever…you know, the ones form the Ad Council…

Which seems to remind me almost exactly of…NetZero. Remember that old dialup provider? You watched an ad while it was dialing in, then you had an ad banner running ac`ross the top  of the screen. There was software on your computer, so it was independent of your browser window. Whereas this system doesn’t install any software so the ads are just a frame on the top quarter of your web browser. But really it’s almost EXACTLY the NetZero concept. But hey, if it gives them enough money to run WiFi, so be it.

Speaking of money, maybe they should offer a non-ad version for a little extra. And offer download priority to those users. I don’t think ad-supported WiFi for free is perfect, but anyhow…on to the speeds…

I went to SpeedTest.net and honestly the connection seems to still be your typical T1…except with the FreeFi system sopping up some ping time to do all that ad servng. And of course there are tons of people using it, because lots of people come to airports with WiFi-enabled laptops these days, and if there’s free WiFi people tend to use it. So my download speed was around 490-500 kb/s while uploads were around 500-750 kb/s. Definitely not capped, and definitely a T1, with definitely many people using it. Okay, maybe it was capped at 512/768 but I doubt it. Anyhow, the last piece of the equation, latency, was about 150 ms.  I also looked at SpeedTest.net’s results comparisons…looks like they might have multiple T1s or such because some people have broken 1.5 Mb/s on the upload. Though on downloads the average is 500 kb/s, ranging between about 375 and 650. Uploads vary wildly between 200 kb/s and 2.2 Mb/s. Latency goes from about 100 to 210 ms, with the average being, again, about 150. In short, don’t expect stellar network performance, but it is generally better than what you’d get with cellular internet and can be used for stuff like YouTube  with reasonable ease.

So I can see why DIA WiFi usage increased tenfold because of ths introduction of free public WiFi (and we’re not talking about that stupid point-to-point network that keeps floating around). Though it does take a little while to get online, you do have banner ads when you’re online, and performance, particularly latency, isn’t that amazing, it is free and decent enough that I may well not chose to break out my cell phone for tethering, even though my download speeds on EV-DO might be a tad faster, latencies would be similar, and ads would be nowhere to be found…at least, not from my ISP. Now to get San Antonio and Austin airports to follow suit…

My Cell Plan is Better Than Yours!

Somewhat of a brag, but for $30 a month (plus taxes…$6…and I also pay $7 a month for insurance on my $400 HTC Mogul) I get:

500 Anytime minutes
Unlimited nights & weekends starting at 7 p.m.
Unlimited text messaging and MMS
Unlimited web access (which includes tethering if I really need it)
Unlimited calling to Sprint, nextel and Boost Mobile customers
Overages are $5 per 30 minutes of overtime

In other words, my cell plan owns your cell plan…:)

This was too long to Twitter, too hillarious to leave out, too short to bookmark…

fulfilling his oath, to aid the Grate Danes,
eazing their angwiish, heeling teh horror
they suffert so long, no small distress.
As token of triumf, presented a cheezburger.

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/11/30/weve-replaced-johns-phone-bill-with-a-portion-of-beowulf-in-anglo-saxon-lets-see-what-happens/#comments

Quick Bits

Well, going to bed now but take a look at the two links I added to the right-hand link bar. One is for my new drop.io space, for whatever files I might want to put up, or notes, or photos, or whatever. Also, I’ve moved all my links to the famed del.icio.us platform, so that it’s really easy for me to add amazing links in there for all interested to see.

CellOne

Sorry for not posting for two days straight. Have been busy. But heres something to munch on…before I go to bed the earliest I’ve gone to bed in a long while:

CellularOne (Dobson) is now bought out by AT&T. Thus adding to the huge “dath star” that is AT&T. Yes, the iPhone will now be “legit” in more places and data speeds will likely go up, but at what cost? Customer service will likely start to decline relative to what it was with CellularOne. Very, very competitive plans will soon be no more (450 per month for all of Texas or $100 a month for all of the US were two CellOne plans…a $60 150–minute unlimited night-and-weekend plan was another), replaced by what seems to be an industry standard now. Don’t get me wrong, AT&T has some good aspects, and if you’re on CellularOne your mobile to mobile community just got about 2000% bigger, but for one thing AT&T does some heavy branding on their phones, and locks them network-wise, something Dobson CellOne didn’t do.

Let’s just hope something good coms out of this. AT&T has to divest a few markets where it doubled p coverage-wise with Dobson CellOne so we’ll see what happens there. Maybe they’ll e bought by a local carrier and blossomed into something truly awesome. Maybe not. Who knows…I just hope that there’ll be cheap cell minutes flying around once this thing is all over…something AT&T just ain’t gonna do.

Podcast!

Yes. In order to prevent typos from my keyboard (and other such input devices) I think I’ll try podcasting things. Let’s see if that works. Will post back here with info on how to get the podcasts!